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100 Diagrams That Changed the World is a beautiful book that features sketches and plans that marked major breakthroughs in human understanding, from cave paintings to the DNA double helix to the first car patent (or this, the first known color wheel, devised in the 18th century).

How many influential diagrams can you recognize? Click through to find out.

What does this diagram represent?

Answer:

This illustration shows the phases of the moon, a sketch devised by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, one of Islam's great scientific figures of the Middle Ages.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What is shown in this sketch?

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is a 19th-century interpretation of Dante Alighieri's map of hell, with the poet's famous layers of inferno that denote increasing levels of suffering.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What everyday device is depicted in this diagram?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This illustration shows the inner workings of a flushing toilet, John Harington's invention from the late 1500's. However, flushing toilets didn't come into wide use until the mid-1800s.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What law of planetary physics is depicted in this diagram?

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This illustration shows that the orbit of Mars is elliptical, not a perfect circle. The diagram comes from Astronomia Nova, an influential book by 17th century German astrologer Johannes Kepler.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What technological breakthrough is shown in this diagram?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This diagram depicts the prototype of the first electric battery, invented by 18th century physicist Alessandro Volta.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What was the purpose of this diagram?

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate treasure map from Treasure Island. Stevenson's map first introduced the idea that "X marks the spot."

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What invention is shown in this diagram?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is Scottish engineer Logie Baird's patent of his "television apparatus," which he filed in 1926. It became the basis of today's TVs.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What major breakthrough is depicted in these sketches?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is a simple diagram of the first computer network, ARPANET, that linked computers at UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute, and other colleges in 1969. The system was a precursor to today's internet.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What was the purpose of this diagram?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is the Pioneer Plaque, a metal sign attached to the first NASA spacecraft to leave the solar system. Designed by Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, and Sagan's wife, Linda, it was meant to convey facts about the human race, like the arrangement of our solar system and what we look like, should extraterrestrials encounter it.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

What major invention is shown in this illustration?

Take a guess, then click through to find out.

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Photo: From '100 Diagrams That Changed the World'

Answer:

This is Karl Benz's 1886 patent for an "automobile fueled by gas"—the world's first car.